The story of Noah’s Ark has always captivated the minds of children. Many have walked animal miniatures two-by-two into toy boats, as they imagine the vessel that saved believers from 40 rainy days and nights of flood.

Oxford and Cambridge universities are putting aside an historic rivalry in a bid to acquire thousands of rare texts that give insight into Jewish life and culture from the medieval era until the 19th century.

The story of Saul, the first king of Israel, begins with a demand by the Israelites — led until then by judges, the last one being Samuel: “When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel… Yet his sons did not follow in his ways… Then all the elders gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, and said to him… Appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations

In Yefren, high in Libya's Nafusa mountains, a 2000-year-old shul is guarded by Muslims.

It is one of the seven Ghriba - "wondrous" - synagogues of the Maghreb. The most famous, in Djerba, Tunisia, attracts thousands each year to its magnificent 19th century building. By contrast, the tiny ancient Yefren shul is barely visited.